Lusitania

The Lusitania made news when it was first launched in 1906 because it was the biggest and quickest ship to traverse the Atlantic. The opulent British ocean liner, however, is best remembered for sinking on May 7, 1915, off the southern coast of Ireland after being torpedoed by a German U-boat. The catastrophe, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 individuals, including 128 Americans, would spark the United States' involvement in World War One.

The Lusitania, which was named after an ancient Roman province in present-day Portugal, was on its 202nd transatlantic voyage when it sank, having left New York six days earlier. The ship's starboard bow was struck by a single torpedo from U-20, which caused a huge explosion inside the hull. In just 18 minutes, the once-powerful ship fell close to Kinsale, County Cork.

Conspiracy theories started to spread shortly after that. Many historians have theorized that British authorities had purposefully enticed the steamer into danger, drawing the United States and its abundant resources into the conflict.

A week before the Lusitania arrived, Winston Churchill wrote a strange letter to Walter Runciman, the head of the British Board of Trade, adding fuel to the fire. Following the disaster at Gallipoli, Churchill, who had just been demoted from Lord of the Admiralty, wrote: "It is most necessary to lure neutral shipping to our shores in the hope especially of embroiling the United States with Germany. For our part, we want the traffic—the more the better, and the better still if some of it causes difficulty.